Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Question: Discuss about the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Answer: Introduction Change management refers to an approach where the individuals are equipped and supported to adapt to change that brings organizational success. Being hired as an external change agent, the aim of this report is to make changes in the existing processes of Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). RSPCA is a community based charity that works to prevent animal cruelty and promotes protection and care. The organization promotes animal welfare since its formation in 1981 (Rspca.org.au, 2017). The organization has a strong mission by promoting care and protection of animals. The organizational vision is to be the leading authority in animal protection and care. RSPCA runs 40 shelters with the help of 1000 employees working together to save the lives of Australian animals (Rspca.org.au, 2017). According to the case study by Dr. Niki Ellis, the results of qualitative research suggest that there is compassion fatigue among employees based on the figures for turnover, sick leave and productivity (Elis, 2007). The research suggests that the employees like a few things the best about working at RSPCA such as being a part of team, interacting with animals, helping animals find a new home and meeting new challenges regularly. However, a few parts such as making unfavourable decisions, physical complications like heat and rain, abuse, lack of resources, seeing animal cruelty and frustration at lack of success are quite stressful for the employees. Therefore, this paper shall help in developing corrective actions that can help the organization reach a desired state to the current one. Further, a change management program is framed by considering multiple factors such as depth, type and scale of change programme. Lastly, the progress shall be measured if the change is implemented su ccessfully. Development of Corrective Actions According to the report by Elis (2007), the situation of RSPCA in 2008 depicts compassion fatigue among employees. Compassion fatigue is a situation experienced by people in extreme state of preoccupation or stress caused to people providing care. As RSPCA employees provide care and compassion to the animals regularly, they are more likely to encounter compassion fatigue. The compassion fatigue is most prevalent in animal attendants than the inspectors and vets in RSPCA. Also, the same issue is found more in casual employees than in permanent. The rate of absenteeism is found more in animal attendants. The organization also faces staff turnover rate of 30% (Elis, 2007). In 2008, the employees faced certain challenges (Elis, 2007). The casual employees face issues such as workload and scheduling. Moreover, there is lack of trust that contributes to compassion fatigue. The employees also face issues regarding support from the manager as they do not find him approachable. Other issues s uch as maintaining line, limited time and resolving issues to a certain extent also exist (Holcombe et al., 2015). As there is compassion fatigue prevalent in the organization, a few corrective actions must be taken to develop a compassion satisfaction program. Compassion satisfaction refers to the positivity involved in caring. The employees need to feel good while they help the animals and make a positive difference in the world. The future desired state shall be the development of compassion satisfaction program shall be to foster positivity among the employees at RSPCA so that there is reduced absenteeism and turnover while increase in job satisfaction (Brannick et al., 2015). According to the report, the primary preventive or corrective actions involve the implementation of compassion satisfaction policy, smarter working program, celebrating wins, involving staff in activities and conducting survey of compassion fatigue and satisfaction (Elis, 2007). For compassion satisfaction policy, the guidelines of self-care need to be established in RSPCA in accordance with standards of Academy of Traumatology (Elis, 2007). The guidelines have two main purposes- not harming self while treating others, and attending to own physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs to ensure high quality services. Further, individual and organizational stress prevention techniques need to be applied. The job redesign shall increase the decision authority allowing the employees to plan their schedule without interference. Further, the casual workers at RSPCA can set their goals for understanding their role and improving performance. The employees working in different teams such as vets, inspectors, animal carers and attendants may negotiate their role based on their liking or personal choice. A de-stress workshop shall be helpful in creating a social support system that would provide feedback and emotional support to the employees. The employees at RSPCA need to take personal responsibility by increasing physical exercise and relaxation training to manage their stress levels (Jacobson, 2012). A smarter working program may be another corrective action to help RSPCA in reaching the desired state. The smarter working program may start with a workshop to brainstorm ideas and plan action. The managers at RSPCA may conduct a brainstorming session where they encourage employees to come up with thoughts and ideas that could be a creative solution. Team management software may be implemented so that the workers at RSPCA can share information and progress on website. A staff suggestion box through continuous improvement program can be run that shall help in improving work processes in the organization. The employees can be rewarded or recognized for making unique suggestions and improving process (Jacobson, 2012). Further, the managers must celebrate local wins. Celebrating wins is a great way to acknowledge the work of welfare workers at RSPCA. The employees have job insecurity and there is heavy workload that adds to organizational risk. There are physical environment risks such as heat and rain that causes distress among the employees (Slocum-Gori et al., 2011). With the uncomfortable work environment, it is necessary for the managers to accentuate the positive that increases the likelihood of positivity among employees. The staffs must be involved while implementing prevention strategy so that they feel active. The animal welfare workers must be involved in the decision making as they have the accurate information regarding operations. A compassion satisfaction and fatigue survey must be conducted to assess the employee satisfaction rate (Lee, MacFarlane, LeRoy, 2014). A few secondary prevention corrective actions may also be applied to RSPCA. RSPCA may conduct a peer support program to bridge to employee assistance program. The peer program shall enable the employees in recovering from the trauma they have passed through while recovering the animals. The peer specialists can offer support and teach skills to help animal find a new shelter. The empathetic listening, encouragement and understanding the employees can help them overcome social or emotional barriers to achieve goals. The induction training can be conducted where the workers can build relationships under good supervision. Also, necessary information can be recorded by communicating with the managers as it is seen that employees are reluctant to turn up to them (Scotney, McLaughlin, Keates, 2015). Guiding Change Management Plans Change management relates to a process that involves planning and delivery of the project. Change management can be referred as the separate component of project plans. This section provides guidance to the change management plans while considering the depth, scale and type of change management programme (Hayes, 2014). The first step is to identify change. The type of changed required for the organization is change in policy, systems and job roles. The speed of change required is moderate as the management of RSPCA may not be able to implement change immediately. The scope of change includes the managers, animal attendants, carers, vets and inspectors who work at RSPCA. The change shall affect the entire organization. There is a need to change the relationship between managers and employees so that the change can bring positivity and reduce compassion fatigue in the organization. There is readiness for change as the target training audience is selected (Tracy, 2014). There is a need for people change as the work practices need to be simplified. New behaviours is required by the managers so that the employees feel more connected to the organization. The policies regarding sharing information between employees and managers need to be changed as the subordinates are hesitant to speak to their managers. Funds shall be required to bring the change and conduct induction program, peer support program, and running website for smarter working program (Cameron Green, 2015). Policy / Procedure Type of Change Required Suggested Plan Compassion satisfaction policy Enhancing individual and organizational responsibilities Conducting animal care workshops, job redesign, role negotiation and creating a social support system, increasing physical exercise and relaxation training Smarter working program Running continuous improvement program to make constant changes Workshop to brainstorm ideas, managing team management software, and creating staff suggestion box Peer support program Skills-development programs, peer support groups Bridge to employee assistance program, offer support and teach skills Induction program Explaining policies and procedures, job role, performance measurement The employees shall be explained the policies and procedures. Job role must be defined. Performance shall be measured. Table 1: Change Management Plan Source: Created by Author Communication of objectives is necessary as there is a need for understating, acceptance, alignment and commitment. The message must be short so that it is simple and clear to the stakeholders. The senior management, employees and trainers are the stakeholders involved in the process (Bridges, 2014). The external change agent needs to consider the following audience or stakeholders as a part of the change management plan- Stakeholder Key Message Delivery Method Location Senior managers The behaviour needs to be changed and must be more responsible towards the social and emotional needs of the employees. Face to face communication RSPCA Employees (animal carers, attendants, vets and others) The employees must take initiative and provide feedback regarding the social and emotional support required in the organization. Emails, Face to face communication RSPCA Trainers The employees and managers must be trained using induction program, peer support program and others Face to face communication RSPCA Table 2: Communication Plan Source: Created by Author Stakeholder Group Type of Training Required Optimum Setting Delivery Method Employees Induction On-the-job training Face-to-face Senior Managers Induction On-the-job training Seminar Table 3: Training Plan Source: Created by Author Every change management plan has certain resistance from the employees or managers that is necessary to be managed. Method How to Use When to Use Advantages Disadvantages Education Communication the desired changes with justification Employees miss information regarding potential changes People often cooperate with required changes It is a time consuming process Participation The potential resisters must be involved and participated to carry change successfully Insufficient information to design and implement change Employees feel greatly committed to implement change Employees may design an inappropriate plan Facilitation Providing emotional support and skills training There is resistance when people fear not being able to cope up with the change Best method in comparison with other approaches Can be expensive and time consuming Negotiation Offering incentives to make change People may not cooperate and resist change It is a simple way to manage resistance Employees can blackmail regarding leaving the job Coercion Transfer or threaten jobs or promotions to those who do not adapt to change To manage change effectively and quickly It helps in overcoming any type of resistance There may be resentment among employees Table 4: Resistance Management Plan Source: Created by Author It is not a simple task to manage change as it is not a one way street. The employees must provide their feedback regarding the change management process. Success and long-term wins must be celebrated by the working team of RSPCA. Measuring Progress This section aims to devise ways to measure the effectiveness of change management at RSPCA. As RSPCA is ready to implement change, it is necessary for them to understand change management. The purpose of measuring change is that it must motivate employees to perform new desired activities. The new projects and initiatives are launched to improve performance of the workers a RSPCA. The change shall also lead the employees to attain organizational goals and objectives. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the success of change to ensure that it has become a norm for the people at RSPCA (Milner, Myers, O'Byrne, 2015). Key Performance Indicators are quantifiable measurements agreed to beforehand, that reflect the critical success factors of an organisation. They will differ depending on the organisation. The goals of KPI compliance are to assess whether business programs and policies are accomplishing their stated objectives, identify areas in need of improvement and provide ways to control and monitor employee performance. In addition, insisting on KPI compliance demonstrates your businesss intent to establish an environment of accountability. Meeting these objectives requires process, activities and outcome KPIs. In addition, insisting on KPI compliance demonstrates your businesss intent to establish an environment of accountability. Meeting these objectives requires process, activities and outcome KPIs (Millar Hall, 2013). In the given paper, there are four main changes suggested that involves change in policies and procedures. The desired change is to reduce turnover, absenteeism and improve performance of the people at RSPCA. The employee satisfaction index may be used as a key metric to measure the employee happiness rate. Annual surveys may be conducted using a Likert scale scoring regarding the organizational culture, leadership effectiveness, management support and conditions of service. This shall give an idea about how happy employees are at the workplace so that necessary measures can be taken for improvement. Further, the number of employee satisfaction surveys may be measured as it shall help in understanding the effort put by the management to ensure employee happiness (Parmenter, 2012). Further, the percentage of employees trained using peer support program and induction shall help in understanding the effort made to change culture. RSPCA must focus on employees have a healthy work-life balance. Therefore, they need to assess the number of days, both used and unused. As there is high absenteeism rate in the organization for casual employees, the total absenteeism including predictable and unpredictable rates need to be measured. This key performance indicator helps in measuring employee motivation as a high absenteeism rate means low motivation in the organization. RSPCA must try to keep this figure minimum for high performance and low cost reasons (Dooren, Bouckaert, Halligan, 2015). As RSPCA has both casual and full time employees, a check on the number must be kept. Casual employees are temporary in nature and may choose to quit the organization quicker than the full time or permanent employees. The organization requires greater number of permanent employees so that there is greater loyalty in the organization. The long tenure of work among the employees shall indicate company loyalty and high commitment. The tenure shall help in determining the talent retention rate. As social workers have specific talents that are not possessed by every individual, it is necessary to retain the employees (Jensen, Patel, Messersmith, 2013). The involuntary termination rate must be assessed where the resignations are employer-led. Such figure shall be calculated semi-annually so that the reasons can be assessed. Similarly, the voluntary turnover rate shall also be measured where the employees choose to resign from the organization. A higher rate shall indicate changing the policies and improving working conditions at the workplace. The attrition rate shall help in determining if the organization was able to retain employees. A low attrition rate shall indicate success of the new policies and procedures (Dooren, Bouckaert, Halligan, 2015). The employee productivity rate shall help in determining workforce efficiency. The number of animals getting less ill shall determine that they are taken good care by the employees. Further, the increase in number of animals at RSPCA shall indicate greater initiatives by the employees to provide shelter. A compassion satisfaction may be conducted where their happiness quotient shall be measured (Kehoe Wright, 2013). There is constant pressure on RSPCA to reach higher performance levels by supporting work and helping the organization achieve goals. It may be challenging to measure employee performance. When an employee's goal is defined in terms of an organizational KPI, it ensures that what the employee is doing is well aligned with the goals of the organization. This is the critical link between employee performance and organizational success (Dahler-Larsen, 2013). Conclusion Therefore, the above report shall be helpful in enhancing the work culture of RSPCA. RSPCA is a community based charity that works to prevent animal cruelty and promotes protection and care. The research suggests that the employees like a few things the best about working at RSPCA such as being a part of team, interacting with animals, helping animals find a new home and meeting new challenges regularly. Compassion fatigue is a situation experienced by people in extreme state of preoccupation or stress caused to people providing care. The employees also face issues regarding support from the manager as they do not find him approachable. The job redesign shall increase the decision authority allowing the employees to plan their schedule without interference. The employees at RSPCA need to take personal responsibility by increasing physical exercise and relaxation training to manage their stress levels. There are physical environment risks such as heat and rain that causes distress among the employees. The peer specialists can offer support and teach skills to help animal find a new shelter. Change management relates to a process that involves planning and delivery of the project. There is a need to change the relationship between managers and employees so that the change can bring positivity and reduce compassion fatigue in the organization. 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